Opinion: Android App iSafe is Bad For America

PC Mag columnist Sascha Segan thinks iSafe, a new application for Google Android phones, is bad for America. Find out why at appscout.com.

I've been working on a roundup of Google Android apps for the T-Mobile G1, and I've found a whole bunch that don't work well. But only one application I tried is, in my opinion, actually bad for America. That's iSafe from Navee Technologies.

iSafe is a social virus which helps spread the culture of fear. Some of the app is pretty innocuous, and in fact useful - it supposedly uses GPS to tell you about bad weather, air quality and local speed limits near your location. (Or it would if it worked; while I was trying it, it would periodically get stuck in Scanning'mode, and the mapping function was basically busted.)

But two of its panels spread the meme that we live in a land of predators and killers, where we must always keep our children inside, fattening them up on commercial television, lest they get snatched, raped and murdered. iSafe triggers GPS alerts based on "high crime area" and "sex offender area" nearby. No details: just "Sex offender!" called out to you in an urgent tone.

A "sex offender," of course, can be anyone from some idiot teenager who took porno shots of herself for her boyfriend to a housebound elderly man who did despicable things in 1966. But if you're driving past Ms. Accidental Porn Star's house, iSafe will blurt out "You are in a sex offender neighborhood!" and you'll resolve never to let the kids out into the yard again.

By giving no additional details, iSafe increases the fear. At least on Web sites like familywatchdog.us, I found out that the guy who lives half a mile from me was convicted once, ten years ago, of assaulting an adult, and probably isn't a serial child molester. Even those sites, of course, don't give the full story. The full story, sadly, usually involves violence against a family member or someone already known to the assailant, not violence against a stranger. By not supplying details, iSafe invites you to falsely imagine the worst: marauding killers prowling the streets.

Unintentionally, iSafe ends up creating a profound fear of cities. I could go nowhere in New York City where iSafe wouldn't blurt out "potential high crime neighborhood nearby!" That's not because New York City is unsafe; in fact, it's one of the safest cities in America. It's because New York City is dense. There's a lot of "nearby."

Actually, the app lists all of New York City as "unsafe" for "personal crime." Really now. Then again, it also listed the local speed limit as "0 MPH," which could be easily assumed by anyone who's ever tried to drive in Manhattan, but isn't actually correct.

PCMag.com's lead mobile analyst, Sascha Segan, has reviewed hundreds of smartphones, tablets and other gadgets in more than 9 years with PCMag. He's the head of our Fastest Mobile Networks project, one of the hosts of the daily PCMag Live Web show and speaks frequently in mass media on cell-phone-related issues. His commentary has appeared on ABC, the BBC, the CBC, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, and in newspapers from San Antonio, Texas to Edmonton, Alberta.
Segan is also a multiple award-winning travel writer, having contributed...
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